Bottle feeding, what do I do?!

[Jojo1992]

I’m due to give birth to my first child on the 7th March and unfortunately it will not be possible for me to breastfeed and will instead be bottle feeding. I’ve seen all the instructions and videos on how to prepare a bottle, but what I’m most concerned about it how long it takes to make it. Everyone says you boil the kettle and leave for half hour and I understand why you do this, but what do you do if your baby starts crying and you need to feed them? It’s going to take about 40 minutes before the bottle is ready which I don’t understand how this is practical, especially during the night! Can anyone who has bottle fed pleasw offer me advice on how they managed to do this. I’ve asked the midwife and been to the baby classes but I don’t seem to have any more of an idea of what I should do, it’s all about the breast in those classes

I always just made up 24 hours worth of bottled every evening and stored them in the fridge. That was usually 8 bottles, but occasionally the odd extra would be needed.

All bottles and teats were sterilised and the water used was just about ten minutes off the boil out of the kettle.

Never had a problem.

I used to make them up and cool them from the outside in a jug of water or under a cold running tap. I would boil the kettle in advance of when a feed was "due" and did use pre made at night
This time I'm getting a perfect prep

It's safe to make up 24 hours worth of feeds in advance as long as you thoroughly and quickly chill them and store them in the back of the fridge (the coldest part).

I use half boiling and half cold water to replicate the perfect prep machine as other posters have mentioned.
When using this method it's important to measure out the cold water used to top up and not just top up to the required amount in the bottle as the feed will not have enough water and be slightly too concentrated. For example, for a 6oz feed, measure 3oz of boiling water, add six scoops of powder and shake well, then measure out 3oz of cold water and add to the bottle, don't just top up the bottle to the 6oz mark.

Perfect Prep machine and ready made bottles for when out and about here!

I struggled to breastfeed DD for a few weeks so I had to top up with formula. I had cooked boiled water in the fridge ready to go (slightly less than needed) and when she needed a bottle I would add boiling water to the formula to sterilise it and then top up with the cooled boiled water so it was perfect temperature and could be drank straight away.

I used to add cooled boiled water to a thermal flask and use it through the day to make the feeds up.

The water would be like warm so I could make my bottles up fairly quickly.

I would also boil a fresh batch in the evening.

Hope everything goes well for you! X